One of the Brickmuppet's crack team of science babes reacts to a couple of nigh unbelievable news stories from NASA. First, a computer intended for the ISS was sabotaged, yes, sabotaged ! Note that it did was not a vital component but this is the first case in the history of the program and a damned shame. What sort of waste of skin does that?

Note that at least one of these incidents involved a NASA astronaut on a Soyuz flight. IIRC the Russians take a nip before their flights so this may have been "diplomacy" of a sort. At any rate an American on a Soyuz would be a passenger. Still not good at all and the report concerning the T-38 flight is terribly worrisome.

A former NASA employee is accused of stealing more than $150,000 from
government coffers, according to a report released Thursday.

Elizabeth Ann Osborne, 52, who resigned in October after 31 years at
the space agency, pleaded guilty to embezzling public money as part of
an agreement made with the U.S. Attorney's Office on July 17, Local 6
News partner Florida Today reported.

Good grief!

And finally via NasaWatchcomes this partial list of explanations for $94 million in missing stuff...

Explanations Provided for Equipment Loss in Which No One Was Held Accountable

Desktop computer and laser printer - 4,855 - My
wife needed a computer at home to perform her work as a real estate
broker so I checked one out from the surplus stock available. I turned
the computer back in when she was done using it but never received a
receipt.

Laptop computer - 4,265 - This computer,
although assigned to me, was being used on board the International
Space Station. I was informed that it was tossed overboard to be burned
up in the atmosphere when it failed.

Various missing property, 65 items - 850,321- A
thorough and reasonable search was conducted but we were unable to
locate the missing property. In general, the missing items consist of
older equipment that has been replaced or is no longer necessary for
standard operations.

July 25, 2007

VASIMIR Breakthrough!!

One of the Brickmuppets' crack team of science babestm is barely able to control her glee as she reports from Costa Rica that scientists in San Jose have achieved an impressive breakthrough in VASIMR plasma engines.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Scientists in Costa Rica have run a plasma
rocket engine continuously for a record of more than four hours, the latest
achievement in a mission to cut costs and travel time for spacecraft.

More on Ad-Astra rockets, the company involved, here. A discussion of this story (which is actually from June) is going on at Nasa Spaceflight. VASIMR or VAriable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rockets are plasma thrusting engines of fuel efficiency comparable to ion engines, but they have the ability to be throttled and vastly increase thrust for short periods. While this is not enough thrust to launch a rocket from earth it gives certain advantages over ion engines in speed and keeps the long endurance, constant thrust advantage of the ion engines. More on these interesting rockets here, here and here.

The fact that the founders of Ad Astra Rockets had to leave NASA to pursue this is dismaying, but their perseverance does seem to have paid off!

"A currentprototype
of the suit consistently exerts pressures of about 20 kilopascals on its
wearer but newer models have reached pressures of up to 25 to 30 kilopascals,
which is about one-third that of the Earth's atmosphere and the target for
spaceworthy BioSuit, researchers said. A fully functional suit could be made
ready for spaceflight in about 10 years, they added.

At the heart of the BioSuit is mechanical counter pressure,
which uses tightly wrapped layers of material that are both flexible and
protective to the astronaut inside. The suit's layers are wrapped in a
meticulous fashion -- based on three-dimensional maps of the human body in
motion -- to provide structural support while maintaining mobility, researchers
said."

This could revolutionize EVAs and space travel in general.

(Giant space slugs and laser pistols still on drawing board)

Art is, of course, by the great Wally Wood from the cover of Weird Science Fantasy #11.